Forum entries from old website

[A. Vontobel]

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Debian software package (deb) available
2010-May-05 23:09
A Debian software package of Mavscript 0.16 is available for download.

Use this deb file to easily install Mavscript if you are running Ubuntu or another Debian based Linux distribution.

By: none ( 0 )
Randomness
2010-Mar-02 10:38
Hey,
Is there any way I can generate random numbers when I run tex file on Mavscript.
I had got lcg & random packages but they are generating only after latex to pdf compilation

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
RE: Randomness
2010-Mar-06 18:55
Mavscript (by default) uses Yacas as its algebra engine. Yacas provides a function Random(), but the random number generator must be initialized with a integer value, e.g. a time stamp.

Unfortunately Yacas seems not to provide a function for getting a time stamp and the use of SystemCall() is not allowed within the java environment. The time stamp therefore must be generated before running Mavscript.

- From the Yacas function reference:
The function Random returns a random number, uniformly dis-
tributed in the interval between 0 and 1. The same sequence of
random numbers is generated in every Yacas session.
The random number generator can be initialized by calling
RandomSeed with an integer value. Each seed value will result
in the same sequence of pseudo-random numbers.

- discussion on Yacas mailing list:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=9d9ff120910200929pb10504bt84f6e82aeade6994%40mail.gmail.com&forum_name=yacas-devel

- eventual work around
You can try to use the function GetTime() to generate an initial value for RandomSeed(). Example:
$m init := Round(N(1234567^(GetTime(Solve(x^5-*y+x+a*y==x^17,x))))) $io
$m RandomSeed(init) $io
$m Random() $io
Maybe this approach is acceptable for you.

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.6 released
2007-Nov-29 22:47
Mavscript 0.1.6 has been released.

The changes are:
- Reads from stdin, writes to stdout
- NewLine char found in input file used for output file, thus line terminators not system dependent anymore. Useful for templates under version control.
- option --quiet
- Yacas Version 1.2.2
- Documentation updated
Introduction and Function Reference Yacas 1.2.2,
FAQ

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
RE: Mavscript 0.1.6 released 
2007-Nov-29 22:50
Compatibility issue:

In Yacas 1.2.2 "N()" does not evaluate variables any more. If your existing templates get slow or even break, replace "N()" by "N(Eval())". You may use "nf()" for short.
Or use the operator ":~" instead of ":=". It numerically evaluates an expression before assigning it to a variable. This can result in speed gain.

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.5 released
2007-Aug-01 01:03
Mavscript 0.1.5 has been released.

The changes are:
- Syntax Highlighting for Mavscript templates
in Notepad++
- MS-Word *.docx files are automatically recognized.

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.4 released
2007-Jan-09 12:54
Mavscript 0.1.3 has been released.

Greek letters and generally Unicode chars can be used in variable names.
While the Java-interpreter BeanShell natively supports Unicode, the algebra system Yacas does not. This release adds Unicode support to Mavscript for Yacas too.

The changes are:
- option --ascii
Converts Unicode chars (i.e. "β") to a ascii representation ("escu03b2"), before beeing sent to the algebra system. Afterwards they get converted back ("β").

• Yacas Version 1.0.62

• Yacas documentation updated
  Introduction and Function Reference version 1.0.62

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.3 released
2006-Mar-12 12:41
Mavscript 0.1.3 has been released.

The changes are:
- new function --extract, -x
Extracts the math commands contained in the template and writes them to the OutputFile. No calculation is done. Useful for finding errors in the template.
- new option --controlchar, -D
Instead of the $-sign in $m/$i/$io/$o/$n, an other sign may be used.

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.2 released
2006-Jan-29 22:34
Mavscript 0.1.2 has been released.

The changes are:
- translated to English
(both the program and the documentation are available in German and English)
- yacas update to version 1.0.61

By: qwert2003 ( A. Vontobel )
Mavscript 0.1.1 released
2005-Oct-25 23:31
Mavscript 0.1.1 has been released.

The changes are:
- better readable console output
for option --verbose
- yacas update to version 1.0.59
- problem with < and > characters in OpenOffice
fixed.
- Syntax Highlighting for Mavscript templates
in Kwrite and Jedit